Arguing Over An Illusion

To people can be right about something if they are looking at it from different perspectives. Sometimes there are clever pictures made to illustrate this. But sometimes pictures can be deceiving.

Have you ever seen this image used?

It's trying to show how both people are right in their respective counts of how many beams there are. One says 3, the other says 4. But is this accurate?

What is not recognized in this image is that it's an illusion. If something real was being looked at, then maybe both people can have the right answer depending on their perspective. They aren't looking at something real. They are looking at something unreal because it's an illusion.

Maybe you don't see how it's an illusion. I will explain.

What you need to do is follow the lines on the beams. If you start on the right side of the person saying 4, you will notice that it forms a complete beam. Then if you follow it back down to the second beam on their side, and look at the opposite side of that beam, you'll see that it doesn't even have a closed end, making it a non-beam. The same thing happens when looking at it from the person who says 3.

In terms of an accurately drawn beam, there are only two, and those are found at each end. Only the first and the last one is a complete drawing of the beam. From the left, the two in the middle are unreal, and from the right the one middle is unreal as well.

It turns out the real answer is 2, not 3 or 4.

Illusions like this make the perception argument null and void, because the two people are each arguing over an unreal things that doesn't exist, as only 2 beams exist.